Loveless
by jj4622
Summary: Elsa di Sica has killed Lauro, and gone on the run. Fleeing the other cyborgs, she meets a mysterious stranger with a murky past, someone who she doesn't know anything about, yet can't help but trust... [NOW UP FOR ADOPTION SEE CHAPTER 2 FOR DETAILS]
1. Loveless

**A/N: I do not own gunslinger girl in any way, shape or form. If I did, you can tell from this it would have gone differently.  
**

**09/02/13: Changed a few minor details to fit it in with the next chapter. If you've read it before, you probably won't notice.  
**

**28/02/13: Realised I had missed a few vital words. Also renamed this part. And extended the opening poem.**

* * *

Loveless

_My love sees me as nothing,_

_Knows nothing of my pain,_

_My sorrow, my love,_

_What must I do,_

_For my love to see me?_

_No matter how hard I try, he never notices,_

_My love, my hopes, my dreams,_

_Does not notice that without him,_

_I am Loveless._

_If he does not, if he never turns,_

_Never once looks at me, nor __acknowledges me,_

_What shall I do? Shall I stay true to him,_

_Forever Loveless,_

_Or shall I..._

The car was silent as it sped along the road, the engine a whisper, the tires making barely a sound. Its occupants were silent also, not speaking, the silence between them dragging on and on. As they pulled into the park, she looked through the window and saw bare trees. The crunch of the tires on the ground was the loudest sound she had heard since they had left, and she did not know why they were here. Her only thoughts were that he might have finally recognized her feelings, and might want to talk in private...

This made her nervous, for she had always wanted him to know her love, but at the same time knew that he did not feel the same, did not even think of her as human. So her heart pounded as she wondered why he had brought them out here.

"We're here"

She jumped at those words, the only thing he had said for miles.

They got out, and she walked a little into the park with him, their feet crunching on the fallen leaves.

"Why did you mess up today?"

She hesitated, unable to respond. His question was so out of the blue, and his voice so cold, that she couldn't respond.

"You're useless. You screwed up today. I'm going to have you re-conditioned when we get back to the agency. So you don't mess up anymore. And I won't be your handler"

Those words, delivered so coldly, so matter-of-factly, hit her hard. It was more than emotional, she could feel a physical pain in her chest.

"No... You can't do that..."

She faltered, and then her thoughts hit her like a storm, memories of him, and of their time together. Eventually her thoughts calmed, and she centred on one. _I can't let this happen_, she thought. _Even if it means death, I won't let them take you from me, my love..._

* * *

She looked down at the body, and for a moment she felt like she had lost everything. Her love lay dead at her feet, the gun still smoking in her hand...

"What have I done?"

She lifted the gun, and stared down the barrel.

_This is the end_, she thought. _All I wanted was your love… your approval… even a smile or a pat on the back would have done… would have… done…_

Her finger tightened on the trigger, as she prepared to shoot, but then it slackened...

_No. I will be more than you thought of me. I will survive_. She dropped the gun, and it fell to the floor. She kissed his head, and then Elsa di Sica ran away from the cooling body of her love…


	2. Chapter 1

**A/N: I do not own gunslinger girl. But we're all allowed our dreams...**

**Sorry, this took longer than I thought it would (school's a pain).**

**Thescarredman: I agree, most of the handlers are ambivalent as to what the girls are, but Lauro and Jean definitely swing more to the 'robot' side, whilst Jose is definitely more convinced they are 'little girls'. And thanks for your review. It means a lot to me that you like it that much. I'm not entirely sure where this will go, but it will be very much an AU.**

**Will not be able to update for a week or two, school holidays and my ****parents have decided to go to Sardinia. Without a laptop... D;  
**

**A****ny ideas of what genre(s) to put this** **under? Leave suggestions in the reviews. Though I have a feeling it wil be romance.  
**

**24/02/12: Corrected some grammar issues. Also developed some bits that I felt I rushed.**

* * *

**Chapter 1**

Elsa ran through the forest, her mind racing.

_Why didn't I do it? Why didn't I kill myself?_

She was in turmoil, her thoughts making little sense even to her.

_I will survive; I will prove I was better than what he thought I was... those were my thoughts. Yes, now that I think about it, it makes sense. I may have lost Lauro, but I must still try to make him proud..._

She tripped on a tree root, and she fell hard. As she picked herself up again, the full horror of what she had done hit her again, like a sledgehammer.

_Lauro... why did you do it? What made you say those things?_

_Why did I kill you Lauro?_

She collapsed at the base of a tree, and wept, her thoughts in turmoil, flicking between surety in what she had done, and the grieving confusion of a child stricken with a loved one's death...

* * *

She stood in the plaza and looked around. There were fancy shops, glitzy hotels, five- star restaurants and extravagant fountains everywhere. The snow underfoot was hard and densely packed from all the feet that had walked on it.

_Rome... Lauro never brought me here, except on business. Still, I know it well. It's a shame I can't stay here. It won't be long before they discover Lauro and begin to search for me...  
_

She needed to lay low, to find a place she could stay. Whilst she couldn't stay here long, she had to rest before moving on.

_I have to hide, just for now. Soon I will move on. The further away I get from the agency, the better._

She saw a small B&B on the other side of the plaza, but then, as she moved towards it, she noticed two familiar figures walking through the plaza.

_What the hell are they doing here!? _

She couldn't know, but she had to assume they where looking for her.

She turned and walked away from them, quickly taking the closest street heading away from the plaza. However, as she did so she realized something else. She had no money. Not that this was a problem, for the agency had made sure she could survive on her own, in case her handler was killed. It was merely an inconvenience. She sized up the people around her...

_There._

She had selected her mark. The young man had just pocketed an expensive wallet, and she exactly where it was, and that it was in easy reach. Now for the grab. She walked close, and then, carelessly not looking where she was going, bumped into the young man. She apologized, and he was fine with it.

It wasn't till two hours later he discovered his designer wallet, complete with €164.43, was gone.

_Too easy..._

* * *

**_Earlier..._**

Inspector Bracchi looked on as his assistant photographed the body.

"Damn, that's disgusting." his assistant moaned.

"It looks like he was murdered late last night"

"He runs an import firm in Rome", the assistant said."He apparently had his daughter with him, but her location is unknown..." he paused, confused. "This is odd. His wallet is still here, so it doesn't appear to be theft, but... where's the daughter? And why did the killer leave the gun behind?"

"Both good questions. However, I think I can answer the first."

"Go on..."

"Think about it. From the description, she's about 15 years old. Blond hair, blue eyes, well developed..."

"So?"

"I hear there's a certain... market out there, for that sort of thing..."

The assistants eyes widened. "You mean... you think she was kidnapped.. for that?" He looked shocked. "I can't believe that kind of thing would happen..."

"It wouldn't surprise me. There are some sick-minded people out there.". He shuddered. "Still, I really hope not, for her sake." He had kids of his own. The mere idea of them being taken away was terrifying to him.

A voice called from a distance. "Inspector Bracchi!"

"What you got?"

"There's a couple of agents here from Intelligence to investigate"

The inspector looked over to see the two agents standing there. One was tall and blond, young looking, whilst the other was shorter, older looking, with grey hair and glasses.

"Intelligence agents? Well well. This is getting better every minute."

The two of them walked over, the blond one in front. He also seemed to be the talker.

"Who's the officer in charge here?"

"I'm Inspector Bracchi. So tell me, what did we do to get Intelligence all the way out here?"

"We have reason to believe this may be related to an ongoing investigation."

Bracchi wasn't stupid. 'Reason to believe', 'may be related', 'ongoing investigation', he'd heard it all before. It was basically Intelligences way of saying nothing while appearing to be giving you information. It also had another veiled meaning, which went along the lines of: 'Mind your own fucking business, unless you want us to hurt you'.

The man continued. "We'll take over all contingencies from here. You'll find all the necessary paperwork has been handled." He handed over a large brown envelope.

"Fine, it's all yours."

It wasn't fine at all, and inside Bracchi was fuming. It was infuriating. He wasn't going to just stand by whilst these Intelligence bastards hushed everything up. If they did, that little girl would probably never be found. But... He had a family. He couldn't afford to lose his job by disobeying orders. As he walked away, a thought struck him, aand he almost hit himself for not thinking of it earlier. He had an old contact in Rome, who worked for someone with an interest in Intelligences more mysterious activities. If he copied every scrap of evidence and info they'd gathered, then handed it to his contact, he could carry on with a clear conscience. After all, from what he'd learned off his contact, the people he worked for wouldn't stand for any this - what happened here, and Intelligences hush hush job. They would investigate, work out what had happened, then they'd intervene - either to save the girl, or avenge her and her father. _Either way, they'll do a better job than I could. I wonder what they'll make of Intelligences involvement though?_ His thoughts became sinister as he imagined what was going to happen to those two from Intel. _Trying to hush this up, huh? Don't worry, with _them_ on the case, you haven't got a hope in hell of succeeding..._

His assistants voice cut through his contemplation.

"Don't you think it's odd how they just showed up like that? I mean, how'd Intelligence even find out?"

_Yes I think it's odd!_ Out loud, all he said was, "A little bird, most likely, and that's fine by me... although they do strike me as a little odd, They seem way too organized to be regular Intel. But, they got the papers signed by the right people. Lets just let sleeping dogs lie."

_Like hell, I will... _He thought as they drove off.

* * *

The two agents examined the corpse. The Director seemed sickened at the sight, he paled as he looked on. To be honest, no one could blame him. The death had been gruesome, to say the least. No one had told him of the modifications that the bullet had clearly had. The rounds were designed to leave nice, clean entry wounds... and massive, gaping exit wounds. The left side of Lauros face was a massive crater, blood, bone and brains had mixed together under the kinetic force of the round, before being blown out, splattering the floor and staining the snow around him. Then blood had poured from the wound, melting the snow and leaving a huge pool of blood around him. _At least he died quick. There was no way he didn't, with a wound like that. _Again Lorenzo shuddered.

"Are you sure it's Lauro?"

"it is." Jeans response was professional, cold. To anyone else he would appear completely detached, with no emotions towards the body before him. But Lorenzo had known him for years. He could see the subtle tensing of the jaw, the way Jeans fingers moved almost imperceptibly, balling into fists. Jean was on edge. He was angry... or was it something else.

"Was he alone out here?"

"No. Elsa was here with him." Lorenzo noticed the muscles in Jeans jaw clench slightly tighter. _Hmm..._

"His cyborg was here, yet they still managed to kill him? Where is Elsa now?"

"She's... missing." Jeans fists clenched tight, and his eyes darted from side to side. Every muscle in his body was tensed. Lorenzo held back a slight grin. _Jean? Concerned? For Elsa of all people?_

"What do you think happened?"

"We can't be sure. However, the gun... it's Elsas. From preliminary examinations, one shot was fired. And the bullets in Elsas gun appear to have been modified to do exactly what the bullet that hit Lauro did."

"And what was that, exactly?"

"The bullets operate similarly to hollow-points. A normal hollow tip causes the bullet to expand on impact. The result is lots of fragments inside the target. Maximum damage, minimum penetration. But these operate differently. Instead of expanding and becoming lots of tiny fragments, they split neatly and become six neat little steel flechettes. Which rip through the target. Makimum damage, high penetration. A vicious design all said."

Lorenzo grimaced. Yes, he could just imagine Elsa designing something like that. She was very clever, and this could always have been an attempt to make Lauro proud of her skills. Or, so that she could hurt those who threatened Lauro better. He sighed. _It was futile, but she never stopped trying. What a shame._

"It could be a coincidence, or perhaps Elsas gun was taken from her and used on Lauro. But i want the ballistics report on every bullet and gun here, on my desk, ASAP. Understood?"

"Yes sir."

"And get every Fratello hunting Elsa. At the very least, we need to confirm her death, though I would prefer it if she were found alive. She might be able to shed some light on our predicament."

As Lorenzo walked away, he called over his shoulder, "Be careful. If Draghi finds out, we will be forced to co-operate with Section One. It may well be that Draghi will use this to take over or even shut down Section Two.

"Yes sir."

* * *

Draghi drank from a delicate china cup, grinning widely at the information he'd just received. He barely noticed the quiet sound of his office door shutting.

"You needed to see me?"

Draghi looked up and saw Pietro Fermi standing in front of his desk.

"Yes, I did... did you here about what happened this morning?"

"Something about someone in section two being attacked?"

"Yes, but... he was one of ours. Lauro di Sica. Passed me photos and information on Section Two. A good agent. They still don't know who's responsible. I want you to look into this. It may be a good chance to put some pressure on Section Two. And I want to know exactly what happened to Lauro."

"So... Where do I come in?"

"Do everything you can in your report to make Section Two look bad." He smiled. "With any luck, we can get Section Two shut down."

With that, he smiled. _Finally Lorenzo. I have something to ruin you with..._

* * *

As Jean took the call, Rico waited patiently for him to finish.

"Yes?" A pause "Yes sir."

_He should be done soon. _Whilst Jean spoke, Rico considered the situation at hand. _What happened here? Jean thinks that Elsa did it. He doesn't say so, but from what he's told me, and the way he's acting, that has to be what he's thinking. Did you Elsa? Did you kill Lauro? And if you did, why?_

"Right... Section One is investigating?"

That snapped Rico right out of her reverie. S_ection One? What are they doing? This is our business, not theirs! Why is the Director letting them? After all, if they found out about jeans suspicions - or worse, if those suspicions became fact..._

_NO! I refuse to believe that! Elsa loved Lauro, she'd never kill him!_

She looked up as she heard a small car pull up. Two people stepped from the car. One was a tall, dark haired man, the other was a shorter, brown haired woman. They walked over as Jean put away his phone. Rico eyed them up. They didn't look so bad, but... She had her reservations.

"This is Elenora Gabrielli, and I'm Pietro Fermi. And who's this?" He asked, looking at Rico.

"Rico, my cyborg." Jeans words hurt Rico, ever so slightly. so little she didn't show it. She'd gotten so used to Jeans attitude to her, she never showed any response to sentences like this. Nevertheless, there was a small piece of her that got a little hurt every time. _Jean, why do you only see me like that? Was it something I did long ago? I can't remember anything. If it was, I should remember it. I'm not like the others, I've still got memories of before... I'm so lucky, poor Angelica..._ Her thoughts trailed off on a tangent as she thought of the unlucky girl, first of the cyborgs, who suffered from amnesia and short-term memory loss. She'd forgotten everything Marco taught her, and the things they had done together. Marco could barely look at her, tortured by the memories of how she had been before.

This tangent of thoughts distracted Rico, so she didn't completely catch the next part of the conversation. Something about her name. This time Elenora was talking, But Rico noted an observant look on the man. She realised that this 'Pietro' was in fact rather intelligent. As his partner took down notes in a little book, he observed everything. He was taking notes, but in his head, and Rico could see in his eyes that his mind was running at top speed, examining evidence and drawing conclusions.

"So, have you come up with a list of possible suspects?" Pietro said.

"We're still running it down. But, in our particular business, we tend to attract a lot of enemies."

"And yet you still insist on having... cyborgs do all the killing for you?" His pause was very pointed and noticeable, but Jean, ironically, didn't notice. He went on to talk about the cyborgs being emotionless, and being efficient killers, but now Rico barely noticed the hand on her shoulder, didn't even react to this display of protectiveness, didn't seem surprised at this unusual act. Because what she was thinking about was the pause. _He was going to say children. Not cyborg, children. What does that mean? _She thought further on this undecided as to whether this Pietro really was disgusted by the use of children, or if it was simply the word that came to mind when he looked at her.

"You make it sound like these _cyborgs_ you developed are the perfect killing machines." Again, the distaste in his voice when he said cyborg was evident. Rico nearly got her knife out to see if the phrase 'you could cut the air with a knife' was true in this case. The disgust was that palpable. Rico decided it really was that he thought of the girls of children. He didn't like to think of children as killers. It almost brought a smile to her face, but she held her blank expression. It wouldn't do to let Jean know she was getting to like this man.

"...the problem here is no Fratello has ever been eliminated like this one." She brought her attention back to the conversation.

Pietro was puzzled, but only for moment. "Fratello? Ah... Like siblings." The smirk on his face suggested he was amused by this. Rico supposed it was strange. _A cold man like him is supposed to be my brother? That' what you're thinking, is it? _Rico could see why they would think that, but she didn't care. _I love Jean... And that's why he's wrong about Elsa. She loved Lauro at least as much as I loved Jean, if not more. So she can't have killed him._

Pietro walked over while she thought this, and he ruffled her hair. "So... you're saying these cyborgs just do as their told? That they're never free to exercise their own judgment while on a mission?"

Jean brushed his hand away. "Every handler uses different means to train their cyborgs, but conditioning and discipline are used to ensure that every one does the job right. But they do think for themselves, especially when they're handler is in danger. They would die protecting him-"

Suddenly Pietro's warm smile disappeared. "So where is Elsa. If what you say is true, she should be here - having died protecting Lauro." As he said this, Rico noticed his slight discomfort. _Again, he doesn't like what he's been told. He thinks there's something more to this. He also seems uncomfortable with a cyborg taking a bullet for their handler._

He walked away, going to examine the scene. As Jean spoke to Elenora, Rico was distracted by Pietro. He looked at Jean, and something flipped up and caught the light. He caught it skillfully, then turned to look at Jean. She looked over at Jean, and then she heard a noise. Metal gliding through air. _A throwing knife?! And it's headed for... Jean! _She reacted instantaneously, grabbing the knife out of the air _(Strange, doesn't feel like a knife...)_ and leveling her gun at... the smirking figure of Pietro. His smirk grew wider when he saw what happened. As Jean reprimanded him, Rico looked at the knife, which was, in fact, a €2 coin.

_Why did he... he was testing me! Fool! If i hadn't realized that it wasn't a knife, you'd be dead now. _At the same time though, she couldn't help but wonder if he knew that. _He's sharp, so it's very likely. _her admiration of the man grew at the risk he had taken to learn something he felt important.

* * *

The gallery was a good meeting place, Bracchi mused. After all, it was a public space, but there was nothing suspicious about being here and plenty of places where the cameras didn't see. The most inconspicuous of these was directly in front of a large mural. _Fabricated World... It's actually very pretty. just like those sculptures over there. Those roses look almost real, you'd never guess they were carved... Actually, come to think of it, I don't think you get blue roses. Still, blue, red and yellow... it looks nice._

_There he is._ His contact had arrived. He made no acknowledgement of the mans arrival till they were within 3 feet of each other. He then walked towards him, making to leave. No one noticed the identical cases switch hands as Bracchi left the room. He would walk around the gallery for a little while longer, as would the man, and then they would leave. _So smooth, the authorities will have no idea anything happened._

* * *

**Now...**

Elsa collapsed on the bed.

_Finally I can rest..._

She had found this B&B a little after she had stolen the wallet. It wasn't exactly the most comfortable place to be, but it was warm, safe, and it had a pretty undesirable clientele. Which meant that the owners didn't like cooperating with people who asked questions. Going to somewhere like this meant it would be a little harder for the Agency to track her down.

_Lauro..._

Her thoughts hit her like a wave, once again overriding everything she thought. Her sobs filled the air, as her tears stained the pillows under her head.

_Lauro... why... how... I shot him... He never loved me... I wish I could die here..._

_But I can... I can die, if I want to..._

The small knife was withdrawn from her coat, and she stared at it.

_I forgot about this... I always kept this here, for..._

She pulled up her sleeve, and stared at her arm, or more specifically, the line of neat, thin scars on her pale skin. She remembered each of these scars individually. One for every time she'd felt she'd failed Lauro. It had been years since the first, but she remembered it like it was yesterday. The ice-cold metal sliding through her skin, her hot blood seeping out, the pain, like fire, coursing through her, so terrrible yet at the same time... so right.

_With this, I can end my suffering. With this, I can end the pain I've beeen through. I can finally aoe for what I did, Lauro. All I need to do is cut a little deeper..._

She held the kinfe up to her wrist, her sobs stilling as she steeled herself to end it all...

She brought the knife down. totally silent, laid it against her wrist, and... cut.

She cried out in pain, but whe she looked at her arm, it was just a small wound. nothing deeper than her old scars. She looked at it in shock, as her blood leaked out, the shimering red liqiud runing down her arm, driping from her elbow to the bed and mixing with the tears already there, in a darkening pool of red, to be joined by the fresh tears from her eyes.

_Why am I so weak? I couldn't do it in the park, I can't do it here! WHY!? WHY!? WHY!?_

She buried her head in her pillows, and wept, sobbing for her love, not caring that her golden hair was mixing with the deep red of her blood...

* * *

The figure crouched on the roof of the clock-tower. From here it could see for miles, but it was more interested in the plaza directly below. This plaza was pretty much abandoned, as it normally would be at this time of night. However, there were a few people below (mainly couples out for romantic meals), so the person below was not completely out of place, but easily picked out by the figure on the clock-tower.

"Hmph. So, you came alone, huh? Not exactly smart, for one of the most wanted men in the world..."

Then again, the police couldn't exactly pin anything on him. They didn't have a description, photo, even a real name. No clues except for his codename and his calling card. Which were, incidentally, the same: The Screw. Because if he turned up, you were screwed. _Hmm... he does have a sense of humor. A bad one, but still..._ No security - cyber or physical - could keep him out, and within a few hours of his arrival, all your safes, bank accounts, even the money hidden under the floorboards or in your underwear drawer were gone. But that wasn't why he was there. Oh no, he only did this to high ranking officials - and when he did, the valuables were part of his payment, and his cover. The job was to copy diaries, documents, hard drives, anything that might incriminate the owner, or anything about the government that they would want to keep hidden. The figure had employed him to find out dirt on the Social Welfare Agency. _He was confused at first, but when he got the data, he was shocked... and disgusted. I suppose he does have some rather high morals... he doesn't kill, but he does use sedatives and amnesiacs. And he really _doesn't _agree with anything that hurts children. Which is why he's so useful to me..._

The figure descended the tower, and as it moved to greet the man, it studied it's reflection in a shop window. It was almost completely covered by it's ankle length, dark green greatcoat, the hood of which completely shrouded it's face. The coat also had black shoulder-pads, which were trimmed silver and appeared to be made of metal. Under the coat it wore a navy blue jacket, and under that a black cotton t-shirt. It wore black jeans, it's feet were covered by heavy black boots, that made a thunk as they stepped down, the kind of noise only made by a steel toe-capped boot. It's hands wore fingerless, black leather gloves, but what could be seen of it's fingers was a pale, creamy white. It's fingers where, interestingly, the only of it's physical features visible.

"Do you have what I came for?"

"I do"

It took the case, and glanced over the file within. It smiled. "This is confirmed?"

"It is."

"Good work. You will receive payment in the usual manner. And a bonus. Quite the bonus,"

If he responded, it did not know, for it was gone already. None could see it's face, but it's voice as it murmured to itself was tinged with happiness, so much so one could not help but imagine a smile on those unseen lips.

"Well well, Lorenzo. You have a young runaway. What will you do now, I wonder?"

_"Dreams of the morrow hath the shattered soul_  
_Pride is lost_  
_Wings stripped away, the end is nigh"_

"For you, at any rate, Lorenzo." It's malevolent chuckle filled the night...

* * *

**A/N: I need to explain some things that happen in this chapter.**

**One: Elsa has been messed up for a while. I don't think she would just flip without anything happening prior. It just dosen't seem like you would go from normal (well, as long as you define normal as 'murderous assassin'), to suicidal just like that.  
****Two: Yes, that was a Loveless quote.  
Three: Yes, that was an Ib reference.**


	3. Adoption notice

Right, so I'm not happy with how this story is going. I will go back and do something later on a similar idea, but if you want to adopt this story, just ask, and make sure to credit me. Thanks,

JJ4622,

Over and Out.


End file.
